Either lard or caribou fat serves as fuel for an "Eskimo candle"; the wick is a bit of rag or moss. The heat of the flame melts the fat where it is spread out in some small receptacle like a can cover. When our other means of illumination gave out at the Windy River post, I worked or wrote notes for many hours by the light of one of these candles. It gives approximately as much illumination as an ordinary tallow candle. One disadvantage of using caribou fat for this purpose is the considerable amount of smoke that it produces.
The Eskimos make odd use of an antler as a brake for a sleigh, to prevent the harnessed dogs from running after any Caribou they may sight; on other occasions it retards the sleigh in descending a hill. Such an antler, that I found at the Windy River post, is notched near the base; a rope or thong, 2 or 3 feet in length, is fastened at one end to this notch, and at the other to the side of the sleigh. To apply the brake, the driver simply presses down the points of the antler into the snow or ice.
The drums used in the ceremonial dances of the Kazan River Eskimos are made of a piece of caribou skin stretched tightly over a circular frame of spruce and fastened in place with caribou sinew. They are about 3 feet in diameter.
In an Eskimo fish spear from the upper Kazan River an iron barb on one of the prongs is supported by a small piece of caribou antler and fastened with back sinew. The two large lateral prongs, of metal, are tied to the wooden shaft of the spear with braided sinew.
Two snow-knives have handles of antler, about 10 and 11 inches in length. One of the handles has been planed down, and is wrapped with sinew.
The handle of another implement, used in cleaning out grains of wood from a hole being drilled in wood, is also a piece of antler.
A woman's knife, or _ooloo_, has a section of antler for a handle.
Strands of beads, used either for an ear pendant or for ornaments at the peak of a hood, have a caribou incisor fastened at the tip. The opposite end of the pendant is provided with a thin strip of caribou hide for fastening to a perforated ear lobe.
The willow stems of pipes are wrapped with back sinew.
Antler and sinew went into the making (by Anoteelik) of a "ring and pin" game.